Geraldine Oetken

Geraldine Oetken, born in Oldenburg, Germany, in 1990, is an artist and journalist. She studied Fine Art under Professor Corinna Schnitt in Braunschweig and Urbino, Italy, graduating as a master student in 2016. However, she has also always written, which led her from art to journalism. After several years as an editor, including for RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, she was drawn back to art. Oetken built a small wooden studio in an old warehouse in Hanover and affectionately named it the Nur So Studio. Today, she is professionally engaged in nonsense – painting, writing, drawing, printing, and hunched over sheets of paper in poor posture. Her animal portraits, rendered in gouache, resemble characters from fables, though usually in a much worse mood. With her typographic linocuts, Oetken plucks commonly said phrases from pop culture and real life, giving permanence and context to these fleeting expressions.